APP OF THE DAY: OneCast podcast simply review (Android)

Like many people, we used to get our podcasts via Google Listen. But the search company killed that product some time ago. So, what instead? The quality of these apps in the Play Store seems to vary wildly, as does the price.

So we took a look at free app OneCast, which seems to do all of the important podcast related things that we need from a podcast app.

OneCast

First up, the search is good, and by good, it shows up the Pocket-lint podcast and the Adam and Joe BBC back catalogue, and thats all the podcasting you'll ever need. But of course, if you want more, there are countless shows available.

You can chose how OneCast gets podcasts too. You can have your phone update the lists with new arrivals in your subscribed shows, which uses very little data and means you'll always be ready to get the latest episode. You can also opt to have the phone download episodes. As you'd expect, you can specify that this happens only on Wi-Fi, or you can hammer your 3G. Be warned though, we fell out with O2 badly over data use for podcasts on an "unlimited" tariff.

OneCast has an interesting method of adding shows, too: it's not overly permission seeking, so when you search, all you need to do is press the show you're looking for, and it's added. This might annoy some, but we knew what we were looking for, and liked it. At any rate, removing a show once it's been added is very simple - just a long press on the home screen.

We did have some problems where we queued up a lot of downloads together, and had issues with some of them not downloading. So there are some limitations, but this is a free app after all, and we have lots of memories of how bad Google Listen could be at times.

The current show you're listening too is remembered too, and you can always get back to it by pressing the speaker icon at the top of the screen.Visually, the whole thing works well, and rather than have a background of its own, the app uses your Android wallpaper: it's a nice look.

The podcast choices on Google Play are many and varied, but if you want something simple and free, then OneCast is a great place to start.

Starting off as a spotty youth who worked in Currys, he moved to the BBC (after getting a degree) where he was an editorial wrangler. A stint writing for Top Gear and co-presenting Sky One's Gadget Geeks completes the picture. Ian has since left Pocket-lint.